3 minute read
Celebrating 30 Years of Our Brown County
PARTY SUNDAY, MAY 4, 2025
30years ago I launched a magazine featuring stories about Brown County.
We had a party to celebrate our four year anniversary in 1999, and then another one for the ten year milestone in 2005. There were plans to highlight our 25th year of business in 2020, but a little thing called COVID shut down that idea. This year marks the 30th Anniversary and we are having a party to celebrate on Sunday, May 4, at The Seasons Event Center in Nashville, from 2:00 to 5:00.
Readers, advertisers, featured people, and contributors of the publication are invited to enjoy fellowship, food, and entertainment.
The late Hank Swain shared some personal thoughts regarding his relationship with Our Brown County in 2005. Here are a few excerpts from that piece.
“I tend to be a lazy writer in my retirement. Cindy’s deadline has acted as pitchfork prodding me to produce over a hundred stories for her. Four years ago I realized many of my stories might have historical value, for some of them were my recollections of people and places 50 years ago when we moved to Brown County.
Without Cindy’s prodding deadline I would never have written them, nor would I have accumulated enough material for my book Leaves for the Raking, half of which first appeared in Our Brown County.
Was our coming on the board [of the Chamber of Commerce] at the same time just coincidence or serendipity? I favor serendipity. When we review our lives we discover that many of the important changes that occurred we did not consciously initiate. Rather the change came from the gathering together at the right place at the right time of seemingly scattered conditions.
We do not realize as we go about our daily lives that we are creating history. We also underestimate or often do not acknowledge how much our lives are affected by the history of those who came before us.
Cindy had mentors who helped her establish Our Brown County. Its success has been mostly from her own energy and dedication to her dream. She sets goals for herself with doubts that she can achieve them, but then does. Calm on the outside, one would never suspect how much she anguishes over each issue. She adjusts to the rhythm of deadlines—to nerves prior to deadline, then calm satisfaction of accomplishment afterward.
Quiet and unassuming as she is, I do not believe she fully understands the contribution she and her magazine have given our community.
Besides the creativity shown in the accomplishment of her dreams in her Our Brown County…she has fostered the creativity of others who contribute to her magazine. Writers need a forum for their words. Cindy as editor and publisher provides that opportunity.
Ten years of Our Brown County has left an important mark in our community. Another ten years (now 20 more) could leave a larger mark. People have been conditioned to look forward to Our Brown County.” —April 2005
The list of contributors that have made Our Brown County possible for the past three decades is too long to mention here. I must, however, give a shout out to my mother Reba Martin, because without her support it would not have happened. I would also like to thank Joe Lee for contributing drawings for every single issue, and Bill Weaver for co-founding, writing, and proofreading until his recent retirement.
Of course, the advertisers keep us in business, and all you readers make it worthwhile.
THANKS FOR 30 SUCCESSFUL YEARS (and counting).
